The twin
by flying-green-monkey
Summary: When it came to being twin, Katherine had ever been good at it. But when Elena reenters her life, she comes being chased by violence and bloodshed, and one detective Damon Salvatore becomes enthralled in the mix.
1. Chapter 1

They came on a Sunday, it had been raining outside, hard at first, now it'd weakened to a drizzle. Elena watched from the stairs, her head poked out from in-between the banisters, hands clutching them on either side.

Katherine was in the lobby sitting on chair, swinging her feet back and forth. She was dressed in her best with white stockings, shiny black shoes, and a peter-pan collared dress. She was smiling and giggling, it was always sunny in Katherine's world; she could get whatever she wanted and she wanted out of this house.

A social worker stood next to her, a hand on Katherine's shoulder. It was a good day's work, she'd found a child a home and would go home that night all smiles to her husband describing her good deed.

Katherine's head tilted towards Elena and smirked. Katherine had been right about the Pierce family, they were going to adopt her. The Pierce family wanted a little girl, a single child to love and raise as their own.

One child; not two.

A second heartbeat sat next to Elena, pressing a hand to her knee and squeezing it slightly.

"She's going to lead a boring life" Klaus whispered. He was eleven, older and wiser than the eight year old.

"Parents are boring, at least no one cares what we do"

Elena nodded, as she always did with Klaus. Klaus knew best.

The doorbell rang and Katherine leapt to her feet. The social worker opened the door and bustled the perfect strangers in. They looked right for the part, in their mid thirties and dressed in pastel pinks and blues matched with white. Wealth screamed from pearls perched on the elegant lady's neck while the man combed his hair back with his hands and grinned.

"Hello Katherine" The lady dropped to her knees and gave the small girl a quick hug. "Are you ready to go?"

Katherine nodded eagerly and the social worker handed the man her suitcase. Before the door shut behind them Katherine glanced up at the staircase, she didn't smirk this time, a sudden realization flickered across the young face. The door closed with a small slam and Elena didn't move; she wasn't going to watch them drive away from the window, Katherine was already gone.

Klaus' arms encircled her.

"Guess we're family now" he said and she sniffled a little but had already promised not to cry for her twin.


	2. Chapter 2

Stefan Salvatore rubbed his eyes and wished the night would be over. Friday night was slipping into Friday morning and the hospital was still abuzz with activity that didn't appear on the decrease.

Again the emergency doors burst open and a paramedic's voice screamed over all other noise in it's usual tidy, clear fashion.

"Unidentified female, gunshot wound to the chest"

He glanced at the girl, ready to take over, then stumbled back.

Dr Meredith Fell turned from him to the patient, realization flipping to shock then right back to command.

"I'll take over for Dr Salvatore, get her prepped for surgery NOW" She belted out to the nurses and doctors.

Stefan already had his phone out, rushing towards the staff bathroom and fingers punching the familiar buttons in a stumbling numb fashion.

It rung and it rung and it rung until her sweet voice came through on recorded message. His mouth began filling up with bile. How could this happen, a gunshot wound? She was meant to be out with friends tonight celebrating her best friend Isobel's newfound singleton.

He dialed again, this time differently and a deep familiar voice picked up

"Damon" Stefan rasped into the phone. "Get down here now"

His heart was beating wildly and unfamiliar panic began setting in.

It took less than fifteen minutes for Damon to appear in front of his brother, who had come to sit stoically in one of the many of the hospital chairs that scattered in hallway corners.

"What happened?" Damon demanded, shaking his brother by his shoulders.

"It's Katherine" He whispered, "I don't know what happened…. She came in with a gunshot wound…. She's in surgery"

Damon's brow knitted together in confusion.

"When?"  
"Five minutes before I called you" Damon leant down to look his brother in his eye.

"Its not her, brother"

Stefan shook his head.

"No, I saw her. I know my girlfriend and she was wheeled through those doors"

Damon pulled out his phone and dialed a number; it took three rings before a clear familiar echoed through.

"Damon?" Stefan head shot up, eyes wide and fumbled for the phone.

"Katherine… is that you" He whispered, not daring to believe it.

"Stefan, what's going on? Why are you calling me on Damon's phone?"

Stefan's face began to crack and he clutched the phone to his ear breaking out in sobs.

"A girl came in… I swore it was you, she'd been shot in the chest"

Katherine's breath was heard with an audible intake.

"A girl, did she have a name?"

"No I thought it was you, thank god, thank god"

His sobbing was slipping into a near hysterical laughter as Damon took the phone from his hand.

"Maybe you should get down here Katherine." Damon said before snapping the phone closed without waiting for reply.

"What's going on Stef?" He was concerned for his brother, there had been a change in him recently; a newfound fragility and hastening to assume the worst of situations.

His brother looked at him, eyes still wet with tears and filled with the past convictions.

"I swear, Damon, she was Katherine" Stefan sunk his head into his hands and Damon wasn't sure whether to slap him out of it or embrace his brother in a hug. Neither seemed right, the situation was too embarrassing.

"Clean up, we'll wait for the girl to get out of surgery… maybe talk to the director about getting a few of those vacation days you're owed"

"I'm not crazy, Damon, it was her. God damit, it was her"

Damon shook him hard by those shoulders.

"No, it wasn't, Katherine is fine. You're tired, you've been working late. Go clean up"

Damon knew this hospital well, not just through Stefan. He got called here often after mysterious bullet wounded patients appeared, he also came here visiting every Saturday morning. A friend was in terminal. The staff generally knew him, he had charmed the receptionists and could get a file he needed.

"Detective Salvatore" A uniformed young red head asked with a no-nonsense voice. "You're here about the gunshot wound?"

He nodded, a bit of information wouldn't be bad, see what had so obviously shook his brother, besides the case would probably be his in a couple hours anyway.

"She didn't have any ID on her but was found just out of town, near the woods. The paramedics say she probably had been crawling for a while before collapsing. Not much else at the moment, I'm afraid."

He flashed a smile at her and nodded before walking off. He made his way over to the theatre, she'd gone in almost immediately and no one could tell how many hours she would be in there for.

Katherine took her time to turn up, slinking in through the hospital doors. Stefan embraced her in a panicked relief, burying his head into her shoulder so he couldn't see the annoyance that crossed her face. She glanced over at Damon, questioning him with her eyes and he simply shrugged his shoulders. He knew just as little as she did.

"Do they know who the girl is?" She asked walking to him.

Damon shook his head, the police were scouring the scene where she'd been found but with no idea what direction she came from or how far she had crawled the clues of what happened were scarce. They wouldn't matter so much if the girl lived.

"No ID, but she should be out soon"

"And she looked exactly like me?"

Stefan nodded rapidly.

"Exactly, I swear"

Katherine bit her lip in an uncharacteristic manner, hesitating before she spoke again.

"It's possible…." She began cautiously "That I know who it is"

Damon laughed incredulously at that

"What you got some evil twin running around? He laughed until he noticed her face was dead serious "You… have a twin?"

It wouldn't be impossible although the plausibility of the situation was enough to raise a few eyebrows, Katherine had been adopted by the Pierce family and never shied away from that fact.

"I haven't seen her in nearly two decades, I don't even know if we still look the same, but we were, are, identical twins"

Stefan looked at his girlfriend in shock, his mind wheeling from the new information. Damon understood how he saw Katherine; it was the same way he use to, the belief that she was without real secrets or flaws besides a little vanity and pride.

Damon never wished to be the one to tell him how wrong that belief was.

"I was adopted by the Pierce's, I just didn't see her after that."

He looked at her and saw on her face an emotion that he'd come across often working as a detective; guilt.

Detective. That's how Damon needed to act now; a girl had just come in with a bullet in her back, something very bad had happened.

"Whats her name?"  
He questioned, facing Katherine with a stoic face, he'd let his brother be empathetic and caring.

"Elena Annalise Gilbert" Katherine replied, the name coming easily on her tongue but with a lost familiarity.

"We can check blood work, she didn't have any id, Stefan? Can you do that?"

Stefan stared into the space above Damon's shoulder.

"Stefan?" Damon called again causing his brother to snap back into reality and finally nod his head.

Damon left the hospital confidant he'd be back before the girl awoke. He needed to find out what happened to her, not just the gunshot wound, but before that. Call any family and friends if possible. It was still unsure if the girl was Elena Gilbert, but his brother's confliction and Katherine's secret revealed seemed to be close to conclusive.

He typed the name into the search database and a picture of a young Katherine appeared on the screen. An identical Katherine. Elena Gilbert was a mirror image of her sister at ten years old, around the same age Katherine was when she moved to Mystic Falls with the Pierce family. Except there was a difference, Katherine had always been full of energy, whether that energy was passionate or hateful it was a constant presence but the eyes of Elena Gilbert were an empty and haunted place.

That's when the caption caught him. Missing. Ten years old and vanished from the world.

Elena Gilbert hadn't existed for very a long time.


	3. Chapter 3

Okay, hello people. Haven't been at fan fiction for a while but hope you're enjoying the story so far. I'd really like feedback so reviews are much appreciated :D oh... and season four soon, exciting!

* * *

The girl's eyes fluttered open, adjusting to the harsh light and focusing on the figure standing over her.

"Elena" A hand touched her arm, squeezing it softly.

She shifted, trying to perch up, when a roaring pain swept through her body.

"Don't try to move, you've been shot"

The figure took better shape now, an older women with short black hair threaded with wisps of grey.

"You're in the hospital, Elena, you've had surgery but you're going to be fine now…. There's someone here that really wants to see you, I'm going to send them in, is that okay"

Nauseating panic rippled through her stomach, how had found her so quickly? She had pulled herself up as far as she could, not wanting to face him lying down, when a girl walked through the door.

Elena blinked.

Her mouth struggled to rasp out a sound that didn't come more than a breath.

"_Katherine?"_

The women nodded. It was surreal; they still idenitcal, for some reason that seemed strange. She'd always thought that once separated, living different lives, they'd grow to look different.

"Elena… are you alright?"

If a bullet hole in your back was all right, but she made a small shrug of her shoulders

"What are you doing here?" She asked ignoring Katherine's question.

Katherine stumbled over her answer with an uncharacteristic discomfort

"My fiancé, he's a doctor here and mistook you for me… what happened, Elena? A gunshot wound?"

Elena turned her head away. It'd been seventeen years since she and her sister had occupied the same room; a lifetime of changes and none of which she was particularly keen to share.

"Well, it doesn't matter about me, but you got to talk to Damon, he's a detective, my fiancé's brother. He'll help you." Katherine said with a false confidence, flailing about to try and regain control, Elena always had a way of pulling it from under her. Katherine glanced over her shoulder and tall man with dark hair and an intense glare sauntered into the room.

"Elena Gilbert?" He asked and she nodded, there was no denying it despite going by Elena Saltzman for the past ten years.

"I'm Detective Damon Salvatore. Do you have any idea who shot you?"

She shook her head. These people couldn't do anything for her, the police and all their associates had always been useless moldable puppets, aware of it or not.

"Do you remember anything? You were found out by the woods on the edge of town, how did you get there?"

They had found her, like he promised he would, and dragged her to the abandoned house where he dealt with all his misbehaving girls who forgot who they owed.

"I don't remember anything"  
The detective looked down on her, his gaze filled with disbelief and questions. He sat down suddenly and pulled his chair close to the bed. They were eye level now, a false pretense of equality that he was playing on, trying to gain her trust. She knew better. You don't talk to these people; they just meddle and screw it all to hell.

"Miss Gilbert… Elena" He took her hand and she pulled it away. "You disappeared at ten years old, no record of your existence for seventeen years, I know this may be hard, but you need to tell us what has happened that led you to this hospital. Please, Elena."

What happened? Her whole life had happened. She wished she were in her garden, the one Alaric and Jenna let her grow; fingernails digging at the dirt, pulling the weeds, and freeing a new life to rise up. She closed her eyes and blocked the detective's voice. The camellia would be in bloom now, it always opened in the darkest and longest winter month, hers were a dusky pink but they came in a deep red and faultless white too. Jenna would care for her garden, as she did every time Elena disappeared, just as she kept her room in place, and a table set for three. Four now, the baby was due a month ago, Elena had already brought a present and was going to pick a bouquet of daffodils, primrose and fennel. The daffodils stood for new beginnings, primrose for childhood, and fennel for strength. She might have added heather too for protection.

Jenna would understand, she had given Elena the book; a hard cover copy coloured in a green so faint it was almost grey, a flower was painted by the spine and in gold font the title read 'The Language of flowers: A miscellany'. She'd given it to Elena not long after she'd arrived when none of the right words could come out her mouth. 'You can talk with flowers' Jenna explained.

"Elena? Elena?" The detective's voice grew irritated; he reached out and touched her shoulder, gently turning her back towards him. His hand lingered for a moment.

"I don't know who shot me, probably a hunter, by mistake" The drugs that ran through her system made the pain in her back dull, as if it was smothered in blankets but fighting its way out.

"That's bullshit. I think you know what happened. Now why aren't you telling me, who are you protecting?" He accused but the pity in his eyes was still obvious.

She closed hers again, her eyelids heavy. Why wouldn't he just leave? They'd come for her soon enough, it was doubtful she'd get out of the hospital before then, but if these people just left her alone she could at least try.

"You're the brother," She said as she opened her eyes, this time intent on studying him, regaining control.

"I'm sorry?"

Elena sighed at the obvious and glanced at the doorway where Katherine hovered, her arm entwined with a man in a white doctor's coat.

"Katherine's fiancé is the doctor and you're the brother, the detective"

He nodded, somewhat confused at what point she was trying to make.

"And I look like her. Do you think I am her? You touched me before, you keep touching me, like you know me, familiar, _like you want me_." She leaned to him closer and could hear his voice hitch.

"You love her, or lust anyway. You probably don't know the difference." She could feel herself being cruel, picking up the tone Katherine spoke to her in during childhood. That's when she stopped and leaned back, her voice becoming her own again, one that was wary and cautious.

"But I'm not Katherine, Mr Salvatore, and I won't be telling you what happened."

Damon's cool temperament was being tested, his hands clenched and he began to stare the girl down. He'd help her, whether she wanted it or not, a law had been broken and she was a victim of it.

"Miss Gilbert, I am here to find who did this to you and I will do it with or without your help. We are not here to talk about anything else."

Elena eyes softening to pity; the man knew nothing of the death sentence that promise was.

"Then that's how you will die, Mr Salvatore. But I have a life I want to go back to, I will repay my debt, and then forget it ever happened. I have no disillusions of justice for these people and neither should you, pursue this and you'll be found with a bullet in your head."

"Elena…" He started, but she was gone, staring at the ceiling and in a world far beyond his reach. He'd got something though, even if it was a warning it was a beginning. But the trouble she talked of had shaken him, he'd hoped for robbery, perhaps a one-off assault. They were traumatic events that changed your life but didn't consume them. Damon walked out of the hospital room with a grim feeling. Whatever trouble Elena Gilbert came from, he doubted it would be simple and easy to solve.


End file.
